But aside from the famous names, some lesser-known people also feature in the festival. These include Renata Calverley who talks about her life in hideouts in Poland, and a biography on an unsung hero from the first team to successfully climb Mount Everest, Griffith Pugh.

Renata Calverley: Let Me Tell You A Story (The Electric Theatre, Thursday October 17 2pm). Renata shares her wartime childhood autobiography, including hearing about her family members being shot and a reunion with her father. Tickets: £6 (adults), £5 (concessions) and £3 (under 16s).

Philip Ziegler and Tarquin Olivier: Olivier (The Electric Theatre, Tuesday October 22, 3pm). Sir Laurence Olivier's son, Tarquin, joins biographer Philip Ziegler to discuss the Hollywood superstar. The book features several unpublished interviews making it a must-read for any Olivier fan. Tickets: £7 (adults), £6 (concessions) and £5 (under 16s).

Carole Seymour-Jones and Simon Pearson: World War II Heroes (The Electric Theatre, Wednesday October 23, 2pm). Carole Seymour-Jones talks about Agent Pearl Witherington, a 29-year-old secretary who was parachuted into France in 1943, while Simon Pearson has written the biography of Roger Bushell, the man behind the breakout of Stalag Luft III, immortalised in The Great Escape. Tickets: £7 (adults), £6 (concessions) and £5 (under 16s).

Harriet Tuckey: Everest: The First Ascent (The Electric Theatre, Wednesday October 23, 4pm). The daughter of Griffith Pugh, one of the team which first conquered Everest, explores previously unseen diaries and letters and rare archive material of the forgotten team member from that first climb in 1953. Tickets: £6 (adults) and £5 (concessions and under 16s).

Lucy Hughes-Hallett: The Pike: Gabriele D'Annunzio (Watts Gallery, Thursday October 24, 7.30pm). Hughes-Hallett's biography is a colourful piece about Gabriele D'Annunzio, an aesthete and militarist who wrote incendiary oratory that in part, drove fascist-led Italy to war. Tickets: £7 (adults) and £5 (concessions).

Jonathan Aitken: Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality (The Electric Theatre, Friday October 25, 7pm). The fomer MP and cabinet member discusses his book about Britain's most talked about prime minister who he knew for 40 years. Tickets: £8 (adults), £7 (concessions) and £6 (under 16s).